Many industries require use of large spools or reels for storing elongated products such as cables, wire, tubing, rope and the like. More specifically, cable (for example) is wound about the reel several times for space efficient storage and ease of use. The reels are quite heavy, especially when loaded with cable, and thus require equipment, such as a forklift truck, for handling. As a result, equipment has been developed to facilitate the carrying of reels by forklift trucks and the like.
Prior art devices used for carrying reels on forklift trucks typically feature two components that must be attached one each to the forks of a forklift truck. As a result, they suffer from a number of drawbacks. More specifically, (1) it is time consuming and cumbersome to attach the two pieces of the device to the forks of a forklift. Furthermore, (2) the two pieces must be picked up and fitted onto the forks by hand. Since the two pieces are handled manually, they are subject to abuse and damage. In addition, (3) the two pieces of the device must be manually positioned on the forks so that they are aligned with each other. Also, tools must be used to adjust the prior art devices. More specifically, (4) an allen wrench is typically needed to fix the devices onto each fork of a forklift and (5) in order to change the length of the lifting hooks, a pair of pliers is typically required to remove cotter pins on each lifting hook in order to reposition them for a different size reel. Finally, (6) the prior art devices require more than one different model to pick up the full range of reel sizes.
A need therefore exists for a reel handling device and method that addresses at least some of the above issues.